is it, to the economy? >> well, first of all, it's substantial to the people affected, no question about that. in terms of its impact on the economy, we recently did a study that suggested if the sequester goes into full effect march 1, want impact will be to knock .6% off of growth this year. that is if we thought the economy was going to grow at about 2.6% without the sequester, that will be reduced to 2% with the sequester. >> tom: for this year, we're talking $85 billion potentially taken out of the growth of government spending between march 1 and the end of september and a $4 trillion budget. proportionally for median household income that's the equivalent of $1,000 out of a $50,000 income being taken out. how can that impact economy so much? >> well, it's-- it amounts to something like an 8% cut in the level of government services, other kinds of government expenditures, and at the margin, that's enough to have a noticeable impact on economic growth. now, remember, it's 80-odd-billion over the second